Memristor

The memristor (pron.: /ˈmɛmrɨstər/; a portmanteau of "memory resistor") was originally envisioned in 1971 by circuit theorist Leon Chua as a missing non-linear passive two-terminal electrical component relating electric charge and magnetic flux linkage. Leon Chua has more recently said that the memristor definition could be generalized to cover all forms of 2-terminal non-volatile memory devices based on resistance switching effects and Chua has said that the memristor is the oldest known circuit element with its effects predating the resistor, capacitor and inductor. The…show more content…

[5] The physics behind the concept of memristive systems like the HP memristor seems to be in conflict with fundamentals of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Following the dynamic state equations of such systems, one would be able to violate Landauer's principle of the minimum possible amount of energy required to change "information" states in a system.[5] As respects the dynamics, genuine non-volatile memristors would be unable to protect their memory state against unavoidable fluctuations.[5]
Researchers from Mitre Corporation have noted that memristor models based on the assumption of linear ionic drift do not account for asymmetry between set time (high-to-low resistance switching) and reset time (low-to-high resistance switching) and do not provide ionic mobility values consistent with experimental data. Non-linear ionic drift models have been suggested to compensate for this deficiency.
Martin Reynolds, an electrical engineering analyst with research outfit Gartner, has commented that Stan Williams is being sloppy in calling HP's device a memristor but that the memristor critics are being pedantic and it does not matter how HP's device works as long as it provides the ability to build devices with really high density storage.

Experimental tests for memristors

Leon Chua has suggested the following three experimental tests to determine if a device may properly be categorized as a